Air France 447: The tragedy, the fortunate – Air France 447: a tragédia, o afortunado

Air France 447: The tragedy, the fortunate

Juliana de Aquino

victim of Air France flight 447/vítima do vôo Air France 447

It’s always sad to hear about a plane crash. Of course, in comparison to the number of flights that happen everyday, plane crashes are rare. But even one crash is too many and lately, there seems to have been simply too many plane accidents! Each person who dies in a plane crash has their own life story. For the majority of people, we only learn about their lives when there is a tragedy. And after each tragedy, we learn about people that were not involved in the tragedy because of some twist of fate. Here are three of those people.

Juliana de Aquino was 29 years old. She was a Brazilian singer who, like many Brazilians of the Brazilian diaspora, lived in Europe. Juliana was born in the Brazilian capital city of Brasilia, but after finding success as a singer, she moved to Stuttgart, Germany, in 2003. Juliana studied music at the University of Brasilia and released her first CD in 2001. In 2003, she played the role of Mary Magdalene in the musical,”Jesus Christ Superstar”, in Austria. Her last performances were as part of the cast of the musical “Wicked”, in Stuttgart.

Tuane Rocha at a special mass for the victims of Air France flight 447 in RioTuane Rocha em uma massa especial para as vítimas do vôo 447 da Air France em Rio

Juliana returned to Brazil for three weeks to visit her family. Juliana called her father before the doors of the Airbus A330, Air France flight 447 closed and she would call him again when she arrived in Paris. After arriving in Paris, she would continue to Germany. She never arrived. As we all now know, Air France 447 disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, May 31. I love Brazilian music and I remember seeing the cover of her CD many years ago but I never bought it. I think I will buy it now.

Student Tuane Rocha, 26, was the fiancee of Russian businessman Andrei Kiselev, 47, another victim of flight 447. They had been together for a year and a half and were going to get married on June 18, her birthday. Initially, Kiselev was going to return to Moscow on May 24th but stayed until May 31st to spend more time with Rocha: “It’s unbelievable to think that an Air France flight simply disappeared”, she said. “It’s strange the lack of a complete report. I only want to bury my fiancee.”

Renata Cristina da Cruz

Was to be on flight 447/era para estar no vôo 447

Renata Cristina da Cruz is also Brazilian, a manicurist that lives in Portugal. She had already bought a plane ticket for Air France flight 447 but her father asked her to stay just a little while longer. When she heard that the flight had disappeared, she started to cry: “It’s hard to believe what had happened.”